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Neo-Catholic Blindness: Another Case
in Point

by Christopher A. Ferrara

In other columns
I have pointed out how the neo-Catholics refuse to see that the current crisis
in the Church began, and will only end, in Rome. The Denver Post provides yet another example of this blindness in its May 9, 2001 edition.

It
seems that a rather obscure pro-abortion Congresswoman, Diana DeGette, was
asked to speak at an awards dinner for the Denver Archdiocesan Housing
Committee. Just a speech, mind you, not even an award. The Archdiocese found
itself inundated with letters and emails protesting DeGettes appearance,
and the invitation was withdrawn by order of Denvers Archbishop Charles
Chaput. The fundraising chairwoman for the housing committee, one Denise
Ludwig, was forced to send a letter telling DeGette that she was uninvited:
I deeply regret this request to ask that you not attend our Housing
Awards Dinner. Oh, how sad.

DeGette hurled
back all the usual expressions of liberal outrage, including her objection to
the Archdioceses litmus test on abortion. Yes, there is
indeed a Catholic litmus test on this issue: those who support the
cold-blooded murder of innocent human beings in the womb are not considered
worthy speakers at Catholic functions. Hey, call us picky. DeGette whined that
the fringe politics of abortion have apparently won out. Yes,
Catholics belong to that fringe which believes the Fifth Commandment, continues
to operate even in America.

Chaputs
reply to DeGette was exquisite: I invite you to turn away from the fringe
politics (of the abortion issue) by bringing your own politics more
consistently in line with real service to the sanctity of human life. And
this: your own party enforces a pro-choice litmus test on its potential
candidates far more roughly and with far less moral legitimacy. DeGette
huffed that the Archbishop was being combative. As in the Church
militant, you mean?

All of this is
very interesting, and Archbishop Chaput deserves the support of every Catholic
for telling off this obnoxious woman. But how is it that the same people who
protest the appearance of an obscure politician to deliver an obscure speech at
an obscure fundraising dinner in Denver, take no notice of the fact that the
Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Sodano, has twice honored the despicable
pro-abort Mikhail Gorbachev by inviting him to speak at the Vatican? It is a
public fact that Gorbachevs tax-free foundations are promoting reduction
of the worlds population by four billion people through abortion
and contraception. Yet Sodano has invited this leader of the culture of death
to give addresses at the Vatican on at least two occasions. On the first (June
27, 2000), Sodano had Gorbachev seated next to himself at a phony press
conference at which no questions were allowed. (Fatima.orgs press
man was there to witness this sham.) On the second, (the Jubilee of Politicians
in November 2000), Gorbachev was given the honor of addressing not an
archdiocesan housing committee, but the very Vicar of Christ, before a vast
gathering of world politicians.

There will be no
solution to the crisis in the Church until the Vatican bureaucracy is held to
the same standard of Catholic decency, decorum and common sense as that adhered
to by Archbishop Chaput. Either Sodano and his collaborators cease their
hobnobbing with the forces of darkness and go back to preaching the Gospel, or
God will have to clean house at the Vatican. Only then will the crisis end.

Why
not send Cardinal Sodano a fax, letting him know what you think of his allowing
Mr. Gorbachev to use the Vatican as a forum?